Ohio State football

*** I moved Ohio State into the No. 1 position after its convincing victory at Oklahoma — a true road win, as opposed to many of the other impressive victories thus far, which have largely come at home or at neutral sites.

As some readers might recall, Ohio State is my pick to win the national title and, as a result, was my preseason No. 1. (My preseason poll is a projection of finish.)

I dropped the Buckeyes out of that position once the results began rolling in: They played two cupcakes and didn’t deserve the top spot ahead of teams that registered quality wins.

The three-touchdown win in Norman prompted a reconfiguration … to the original configuration.

*** Louisville jumped into the No. 2 spot, all the way from N. 19 last week, after dismantling Florida State (in Louisville).

Yes, that’s a big jump, but it was a big win and big jumps are necessary to weed out preseason bias.

The first in-season ballot of 2016 is below. It plays off my preseason ballot, which was a projection of how everything will shake out, and makes adjustments based on results where applicable.

There have been several major changes, but the ballot cannot be wholly results-oriented because not every team played a meaningful opponent.

In those instances, preseason guesswork unfortunately remains. Ohio State and Michigan are two prominent examples: My sense is that both teams deserve placement near the top of the ballot, although Bowling Green and Hawaii hardly provided resistance.

It will be several weeks before we have enough quality games to compile a ballot that’s completely based on results. But because of the stellar opening weekend, we’re further along in the process than usual.

*** In my view, Alabama’s victory over USC was the most impressive win of the weekend. As a result, the Crimson Tide jumped into the No. 1 spot, replacing Ohio State (my pick to win the national title, and hence my preseason No. 1).

But that could very well be a temporary position for the Tide — it depends, to some extent, on USC’s performance. If the Trojans stumble again, it would devalue Alabama’s win and force a reassessment.

*** You’ll note that the top-eight teams on the ballot all played marquee opponents, not cupcakes. The rankings are based on my view of the quality of the individual win — Alabama over USC being the best, followed closely by Texas over Notre Dame.

(Yes, I gave serious consideration to putting the Longhorns in the top spot. To use my own example: You might think Ohio State is better than Texas, but there’s no way to argue that Ohio State has a better result than Texas.)

*** I went back and forth on Florida State and Clemson, finally settling on the Seminoles in the No. 3 spot. Admittedly, that’s a guess, because we don’t know which opponent, Ole Miss or Auburn, is better at this point.

The AP released its preseason top-25 poll Sunday morning. My ballot, posted on the Hotline 10 days ago, has been update below with the AP rankings for comparative purposes. I’ve kept the comments from the original post.

Before we started, two links:

** Some terrific data and perspective on the preseason poll from CBSSports.com’s Jon Solomon.

** On a personal note, I was honored to be a guest on AP national writer Ralph Russo’s podcast. We talked about the poll, my approach to voting, the Pac-12 and more.

Teams on my ballot but not in the AP poll: Texas A&M, Washington State, San Diego State, Texas and Miami.

No. 25: Texas A&M.
AP ranking: NRComment: If they can keep the assistant coaches in line, Aggies should have a bounce-back season. Most of their toughest games (UCLA, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU) are at home.

No. 24: Washington State.AP ranking: NRComment: The resurgence under Mike Leach continues with Luke Falk back to operate the Air Raid. Only problem is a rugged division.

No. 23: San Diego State.AP ranking: NRComment: Best team in the Mountain West with 18 starters (including specialists) returning from a team that won 11 and crushed Cincinnati in the Hawaii Bowl.

The ballot below was submitted to the Associated Press last week. The release date for the AP’s preseason top-25 is Aug. 21, and I’ll update my ballot with the overall rankings for comparative purposes.

Several housekeeping items first:

*** There are enough college football media outlets to satisfy even the most ravenous fans, but a new one has entered the space that’s well worth your time:

The Media Guides, authored by veteran journalists Mark Blaudschun (east coast), Herb Gould (heartland) and Chris ‘Rankman’ Dufresne (west coast). Combined, they have a century of experience covering college football.

*** On my preseason ballot …

As always, it’s a reflection of how I believe things will shake out in the end: The No. 1 team is my projected national champion.

The AP is purposefully vague when it comes to preseason ballots. It wants a variety of opinions and approaches. I’m not much interested in which team(s) might be the best in August and therefore take the long view.

I’ll adjust the order as soon as meaningful results dictate. Given the epic schedule for Week One, the meaningful results will come immediately.

Expect dramatic changes from week to week until things settle. As the AP says in its voting guidelines: “Don’t hesitate to make significant changes in your ballot from week to week.”

Let’s start with a quick thought on the top story here in the Bay Area: Cal quarterback Jared Goff, as expected, went No. 1 to the Rams.

In the process, he became 1) the first Golden Bear to be the top overall pick since Steve Bartkowski in 1975 and 2) one of only two Bay Area players in the past three decades to be the first off the board.

The other was Stanford’s Andrew Luck, in 2012. And in both cases, the No. 1 pick comes with immense pressure because of the particular circumstances:

Luck’s task in Indianapolis: Revive a franchise and replace a legend, Peyton Manning.

Goff’s challenge with the Rams is equally momentous: He immediately becomes the face of a franchise that traded six picks to get him and oh-by-the-way just relocated to the No. 2 market in the country — a market that happens to be in need of a superstar after its most popular athlete recently retired.

CBSSports.com columnist Jon Solomon on Friday morning published a ranking of the 18 BCS- and playoff-era champions, based on votes cast by a handful of college football writers around the country.

The rankings, with vote totals, stats and Solomon’s summary, can be found here.

I was fortunate enough to participate and wanted to share my ballot, which tracks the overall voting fairly closely with the exceptions of Oklahoma ’00 and Florida State ’13 (as you’ll see below).

Note I: The comments below are mine, written for this Hotline post. They were not submitted.

Note II: I’d argue that USC ’03 was as good as half the teams on this list, but the Trojans weren’t the BCS champs. They were AP champs, denied a spot in the title game due to the BCS formula, which deemed LSU and Oklahoma the best teams.

18. LSU ’07 (CBSSports ranking: 18): Not the least-talented of the champs, but the only one with two losses (to Kentucky and Arkansas). Hard to make the case they should be anywhere but 18th.

17. Ohio State ’02 (CBSSports ranking: 12): Have never thought much of the ’02 Buckeyes. That’s partly because they needed an egregious, all-time-bad PI call on Miami to survive.

16. Alabama ’15 (CBSSports ranking: 11): Entirely possible that with the benefit of time, the ’15 Tide might warrant a higher placement. Went 14-1, beat Clemson 45-40 and won eight games against ranked opponents. Defense was terrific. Offense wasn’t special.

Most likely the final installment of my early look at 2016 from a national perspective. If the muse strikes, I might add one more item to the series (and I will update the top-25 projections if NFL Draft decisions warrant). Next week, the focus turns to the Pac-12, with order-of-finish projections, all-conference predictions, top games, and more // …

The first weekend of the 2016 season stands, on paper, as the best first weekend of any season, ever.

It’s only 232 days away.

(Both teams from Los Angeles had better be ready, one a tad more than the other.)

The Hotline’s early preview of the ’16 season, which began with my top-25 projections, continues with a look at 10 Heisman Trophy contenders.

It’s a loaded field, for sure — one of the best in recent memory — and the list below is stocked with familiar names.

Important note I: I’m assuming the 2015 winner, Alabama running back Derrick Henry, turns pro. If he returns to school, add him to the list (obviously!).

Important note II: Even without Henry, it stacks up as a terrific race: Five of the top-seven finishers from ’15 are expected back next season. (The other departure: Navy senior Keenan Reynolds.)

Important note III: Individual excellence only goes so far. Of the 16 winners this century, only two played for teams that had lost more than two games when the Heisman ballots were due: Tim Tebow in 2007 and Robert Griffin III in 2011. (Both Florida and Baylor had 3 losses in the regular season.)